We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides. On many sides. It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. This has been going on for a long, long time.

It’s hard to imagine a less presidential statement in a time in which the country looks to its elected leader to stand up against intolerance and hatred.

Picking a “worst” from Donald Trump’s statement — delivered from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club — isn’t easy. But, the emphasis of “on many sides” — Trump repeated that phrase twice — is, I think, the low ebb.

Both sides don’t scream racist and anti-Semitic things at people with whom they disagree. They don’t base a belief system on the superiority of one race over others. They don’t get into fistfights with people who don’t see things their way. They don’t create chaos and leave a trail of injured behind them.

Arguing that “both sides do it” deeply misunderstands the hate and intolerance at the core of this “Unite the Right” rally. These people are bigots. They are hate-filled. This is not just a protest where things, unfortunately, got violent. Violence sits at the heart of their warped belief system.

Trying to fit these hate-mongers into the political/ideological spectrum — which appears to be what Trump is doing — speaks to his failure to grasp what’s at play here. This is not a “conservatives say this, liberals say that” sort of situation. We all should stand against this sort of violent intolerance and work to eradicate it from our society — whether Democrat, Republican, Independent or not political in the least.

What Trump failed to do is what he has always promised to do: Speak blunt truths. The people gathered in Charlottesville this weekend are white supremacists, driven by hate and intolerance. Period. There is no “other side” doing similar things here.

“Mr. President – we must call evil by its name,” tweeted Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colorado. “These were white supremacists and this was domestic terrorism.” Tweeted Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, another fellow Republican: “Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists.”

What Trump is doing — wittingly or unwittingly — is giving cover to the sort of beliefs (and I use that word lightly) on display in Charlottesville today.

Chalking it all up to a violent political rhetoric that occurs on both sides and has been around for a very long time contextualizes and normalizes the behavior of people who should not be normalized. It is not everyday political rhetoric to scream epithets at people who don’t look like you or worship like you. Trump’s right that this sort of behavior has existed on American society’s fringes for a long time — but what we as a nation, led by our presidents, have always done is call it out for what it is: radical racism that has no place in our world.

This country has something called Homeland Security. To see something like thus erupt, given the advertised capabity of this agency is beyond unbelievable. Evidently surveillance is not as comprehensive as it needs to be.

I think it’s more a problem of “turning a blind eye” rather than a failure of surveillance. A multitude of organizations keep databases of violent, racist, and antidemocratic groups and they all dwell in the right end of the political spectrum.
The Republican party sold its soul to the devil in the 1968 elections when all those southern democrats left the party in mass because of president Johnson’s civil rights legislation. It is not spoken of in polite circles but these bigots have been on board since the Nixon campaign.
The right has gone total, full-on fascist and it is so very difficult to resist moving to the far, far left for there are people that need to be jailed or worse.

Dan well said, this has been just under the surface particularly in the south and is used time and again by the republican far right, the christian far right and any time different conservative groups need to raise $$$. Trump just peeled back the scab and the wound keeps getting more and more infected, watch out this is not over. We will see how loyal the republican party is to this country? My bet is their billionaire masters over the USA.

Writing about a subject is the best
way to educate yourself about it, and when I flick through past work I remember how much
they taught me, if no one else. Mainly they taught me that I didn’t know very much. But they
also taught me that most other people didn’t know much either. Thus, some key themes
which stand out include the illusory control of policy makers, the presumed knowledge of
those looking to them to actively do good, the ease with which we fool ourselves, and how
best to protect capital in the face of such unavoidable uncertainty. -- Dylan Grice